The American League Championship Series attracted record-low numbers, but the MLB Postseason remains on an upward pace entering the World Series.
The six-game Royals/Blue Jays ALCS averaged 3.9 million viewers across FOX and Fox Sports 1, down 14% from last year’s five-game NLCS (4.5M) and down 50% from the six-game Red Sox/Tigers ALCS on FOX in 2013 (7.7M). Average ratings were not available. Compared to last year’s four-game Royals/Orioles ALCS on TBS, viewership declined 24% from 5.1 million.
The Royals’ win ranks as the least-watched League Championship Series ever, falling below the previous mark of 4.3 million for Rockies/Diamondbacks on TBS in 2007.
In addition to ranking as the least-watched LCS ever, the series also set the all-time record low for an LCS game on three separate occasions — initially setting the mark with 2.7 million in Game 2, breaking it with 2.6 million for Game 4, and breaking it again with just under 2.6 million for Game 5.
There were numerous factors contributing to the record-low numbers. Kansas City is the #33 ranked television market and Canadian viewership does not count toward U.S. television ratings. Fox Sports 1 is in 84.3 million homes, more than ten million fewer than TBS (95.4M) and over 30 million fewer than the broadcast networks (116.4M). Finally, three of the six games aired during the afternoon, including a pair of weekday afternoon games.
Overall, the complete A.L. postseason averaged 3.3 million viewers across ESPN, FOX, FS1 and MLB Network — barely more than half of the 6.3 million TBS averaged for the National League playoffs. The full MLB Postseason has averaged 4.6 million viewers thus far, up 18% from last year (3.9M).
(Full postseason avg. from Sports Business Daily)
